Staff Column: Campus Crazies, Continued

By now you may have heard of Olga Perez Stable Cox. She is a woman of many names, the third of which is especially ironic. This college professor told her students this about the recent election: ‘We have been assaulted. It’s an act of terrorism.’

If her words weren’t offensive enough, the professor actually asked Trump-supporting students to stand and identify themselves.

On her website, Cox boasts that it is her 30th year at Orange Coast College in California, adding, ‘I love teaching!’

That’s great, professor, and your ‘human sexuality’ classes are no doubt enlightening and academically first-rate. But your students might love learning more about the subject at hand, less about your political views.

The taxpayer-supported college has done nothing to discipline the professor, but at least the teacher’s union is demanding punishment. Not for Cox, but for the student who captured the footage!

Since that incident, there have been disturbing reports that Cox has received hate mail, which is just as odious as her statements. She deserves to be disciplined; she does not deserve physical threats or harassment.

Then there are the universities that pompously declare themselves ‘sanctuary campuses.’ It essentially means they are willing to defy federal law and ignore federal requests to identify illegal immigrants, even those accused of crimes.

There is no doubt that many of our ‘institutions of higher learning’ have been taken over by the loony left. About two-thirds of college professors identify themselves as ‘liberal’ or ‘far left,’ while only one in ten is ‘conservative’ or ‘far right.’

Outing yourself as a traditional thinker on an elite campus has become an act of self-endangerment. Imagine wearing a ‘Make America Great Again’ cap while strolling across the quad at Harvard or Stanford. The ever-so-tolerant students and faculty would find that absolutely intolerable, maybe even ‘an act of terrorism.’

Progressives will eagerly tell you that they dominate campuses because they are just plain smarter than conservatives. But in fact, traditional and religious Americans steer clear of places where they know they are not welcome. They tend to enter professions where they are not in a ‘hostile environment,’ to borrow a phrase from the far left.

We mentioned once before that one long-dead academic would be delighted and unsurprised by the left’s takeover. Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci, who preached the goodness and humanity of communism a century ago, understood that Marxism would never become dominant via armed revolution. So he urged his fellow leftists to infiltrate universities, the media, and mass entertainment. Gramsci called for a ‘long march through the institutions,’ a march that would someday lead to that ever-elusive communist paradise.

His ‘long march’ has been effective and has led to the rise of a new class of academics. The writer Nassim Taleb, author of ‘The Black Swan,’ describes this group as ‘The Intellectual Yet Idiot.’ They are the well-educated but out-of-touch elites who tell their inferiors what to eat, how to think, what to say, and how to vote.

Donald Trump’s election was a severe blow to these ‘intellectual idiots,’ many of whom are right now working their way through the various stages of grief. Olga Perez Stable Cox lashed out and, unfortunately for her, was caught on video by a cell phone. (Ironically, technology that could only have come via capitalism.) There are many more like her, tenured radicals teaching nonsense and intimidating students.

A website called ‘Professor Watchlist’ identifies the most radical professors and most egregious incidents. You may want to check it out the next time that hefty tuition bill arrives or before you send the young ‘uns off to college.

Campus radicals are upset right now, shedding tears and spewing invective. But no doubt they consider it a temporary setback, a mere speed bump along that long march. They have destroyed much of what was great about American universities. And, like Admiral John Paul Jones, they have not yet begun to fight.